Your Right to Know

The City Council’s finance-committee chairman, Doug Marmie, used phrases such as “compromise”
and “headed in the right direction.”

Both were describing the process of shaping the 2014 budget so that it could meet with the
approval of the administration and the full council. They succeeded last night when the council
voted 9-0 to adopt a $104.6 million city budget, an increase of about $15 million over this year’s
budget.

A week earlier, the tone was decidedly different as finance–committee members got their first
chance to question the mayor’s budget.

Chairman Marmie did most of the questioning, going almost line by line, pointing out mistakes
and questioning figures. It quickly became apparent that Marmie and the mayor differed
philosophically on one particular aspect of the budget: the rainy-day fund, officially called the
Budget Stabilization Fund.

The mayor recommended borrowing $300,000 from it to balance the budget and prevent more layoffs.
Marmie argued that, with the elimination of the estate tax, the cuts in the state’s
local-government fund and the expiration of Newark’s police, fire and civilian union contracts, the
Budget Stabilization Fund needs to be strengthened, not weakened.

“I can’t pass this the way it is,” Marmie said. “The Budget Stabilization Fund is a huge
concern. With union negotiations coming up, you’re setting the city up for failure.”

“There’s no way to cut $300,000 from this budget without layoffs,” Hall countered. “You tell me
where those are going to come from. You tell me who those cuts should be.”

Marmie and Hall met on Friday to crunch numbers. By the time they emerged, the budget had been
tweaked. The amount borrowed from the rainy-day fund, which is ending 2013 with $610,000, had
decreased by $100,000, to $200,000. Both men seemed satisfied.

“I appreciate the mayor’s efforts,” Marmie said at last night’s council meeting before the
amended budget was unanimously adopted.

Police and fire salaries and benefits, budgeted at slightly more than $8 million each, account
for 54 percent of the general-fund portion of the 2014 budget, which is $29.5 million. Each is up
about $200,000 from this year’s budgeted amount.